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10-31-2007-03

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10-31-2007-02

Happy Halloween!  Let's talk issues, not assassinate character.  By Bill Toedter.

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10-31-2007-01

Dear Citizens of Iron Mountain:

One of your former city employees asked if I would care to share my most recent experience with Iron Mountain and any suggestions I may have.  Briefly:

I am from the area and familiar with the city, so I was willing to consider the prospect of a small manufacturing facility there.  Another technological entrepreneur, who was far more seriously considering the settlement of his business in Iron Mountain, suggested the idea to me in 2004.  Investing in small and deteriorating American cities, under the correct circumstances, often can be a very good value if a business can get in cheaply and, with others doing the same, pursue a thoroughgoing civic renaissance.  This can also benefit the city immeasurably, reversing its fortunes.  I was interested in opening a plant for the manufacture of our line of cards and cartridges and their complimentary software for use in desktops, laptops, minis, handhelds and other Internet-connective items by manufacturers of all types.

After completing our initial research on Iron Mountain, I found the city’s long initial unresponsiveness unforgivable.  I had stopped trying to contact the city when it contacted me, excusing itself and explaining a communications foul-up by employees.  I decided that, having gone that far to explore Iron Mountain’s feasibility, and having made no commitment elsewhere, I would give it another try.

Again unresponsiveness became common from every office.  Even after the city and I had established a tenuous connection, I found the city bureaucracy’s red tape impenetrable, its delays maddening, its conduct unprofessional.  One incident that particularly angered me is that confidential information I shared with leading city officials for purposes of planning and projecting became public knowledge within hours.  Another is that officials were claiming that they were not receiving materials and correspondence that I was mailing to them at City Hall, but only that material mailed to City Hall.

My attempts to communicate and deal with Iron Mountain were between autumn of 2005 and spring of 2006.

My new north central plant will open in La Crosse, Wisconsin, in April of 2008.

Suggestions?  Vote into office state and municipal governments that are savvy and knowledgable, contemporary and broad-visioned, quick on their feet, have a track record of competence and accomplishment, are professional, and are not only accountable but openly willing to be accountable.  Avoid wannabes.  Avoid parochial, politicized, and pretentious governments such as the one I encountered in Iron Mountain.  Even a small-town rural government today must have a global outlook if the town is to survive, much less thrive, in today and tomorrow’s world economy.  Not simply a declared global outlook, but an actual, demonstrable one.  In a variety of ways it may cost you more to get such talented and responsible people, but they will cost you a great deal less than if you don’t get them.

Sincerely yours,

Laurie Badini-Larson
Austin, Texas

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10-30-2007-07

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10-30-2007-06

Bill Toedter openly takes offense, responding to and directly disputing Eden Caudell's accusations and affront.

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10-30-2007-05

From Bruce J. Rosen, some important positions and pre-election reminders

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10-30-2007-04

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10-30-2007-03

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10-30-2007-02

Greetings, Iron Mountain!

For over 60 years I have been going to our camp near there.  First I went with my mom and dad and brothers and sisters, then with friends, and then at every opportunity I had for the past 36 years with my own family.  I have many wonderful friends in and around Iron Mountain and the U.P. and many fond, rich memories of the area.

I worked for NOAA and NASA my whole life and finally retired in 2004.  My wife and I decided that within a couple of years we would sell our home down here, upgrade the camp, and move there year-round.  I am also in the middle of starting a retirement business of RFID, more for my son and grandchildren, ultimately, than for me.  This business will manufacture, store, and distribute specialized RFID-tagged medical equipment.  RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) devices are a newly important and growing niche in technology.  I invite you to investigate our work with them on the web and in other media.  The startup money is in place, and once we are up and running we will immediately employ about 175 persons at an average annual salary of about $49,000.

Initially Iron Mountain interested me because of the availability of good cheap property, its airport and air services, its highways and shippers, basic available services necessary to us, other business and demographic factors, a couple of networking technology individuals I would like at my elbow, its location near our camp/home, and its sentimental value to our family.  The quality, reliability, and even the continued availability of some of these things have become dubious, however, the last two or three years.

I understand in the current election campaign for city council seats, the current council members who are running for reelection are bragging that Iron Mountain is business friendly.  Well, that seems an outright political campaign lie to me.  I recommend that you investigate this very carefully.  If there are more than a handful of businesses, new or already there, who find Iron Mountain business friendly, I would surely appreciate a list of them.  Maybe they have a list of secrets how to work with the city effectively, move forward even one step in more than super-slow motion, and get anything accomplished.  Or how to communicate with the city at all.  Not one of the city's current or prospective businesses I've spoken with over the last 11 months had a kind thing to say about working with the current city government.  While for most it seemed a matter of incompetence, others gave me the impression that it was like trying to deal with the Mafia.

My experience over the past year has been a nightmare full of nothing but recurring frustration, anger, and grief.  I could not contact anyone.  No one replied.  When someone finally did, they directed me elsewhere.  That party then directed me somewhere else.  And so on.  It was as if each person I spoke with couldn't find his own rear end with both hands.  And even if he did, he was determined that the buck was not going to stop at him.  Eventually someone directed me back to the original party.  Who would not see me, would not talk to me, cancelled meetings, failed to show up for them, or procrastinated.  Repeatedly.  Between meetings with individuals, those individuals would not do their homework regarding my bona fides or the subject matter and I would have to start all over again.  They apparently kept no records and would not remember me from time to time.  It got ridiculous when Iron Mountain bureaucrats for Iron Mountain city business directed me once to Kingsford, once to animal control, and once to Dickinson County.  Funny, but really not very funny.

When I did meet or correspond with anyone, they set up obstruction after obstruction, delay after delay, and could never answer any questions.  I do not mind saying that the city manager was beyond useless.  He could never say simply yes or no.  Incredibly, he actually seemed to want to toy with me.  When I could get him to respond, he hadn't the slightest clue what I talking about, then he spoke officiously and bewilderingly about subjects that had nothing to do with the business at hand, as if he were on the phone with someone else while I just sat and overheard the conversation.  The mayor rudely told me to go through the proper channels (ignoring that I had just told him that that's what I had spent months trying to do) and to come up and attend a meeting if I had anything to say and wanted to find out what was going on.  Apparently he was more clueless, unhearing, and uncaring than the city manager.  (Our background checks of these individuals surely were not very encouraging.)  When I did eventually attend a meeting, I wondered how a person introduces the nitty-gritty of a business to a city in a meeting of that nature.  There is no give-and-take.  It doesn't accommodate the down-to-business business of doing business with a city.  Every city official I spoke with was in way over his head, most were condescending, discourteous, and ratherly meanly defensive, none had answers, and each self-importantly acted as if he knew in detail what I was speaking about (until, suspicious, I tested them with a question and they were lost).  I marveled over their constant arrogance and air of superiority, including that of the clerk, a youngster who behaved as if he were a supercilious ancient Islamic philospher.  After saying they would get back to me, they seldom did.  Some never did.  The initiative was all mine and the city government repelled it every step of the way.  Eventually I had had enough and said nuts to this.

I am still moving up there, however, and still opening my factory and warehouse.  Sooner rather than later.  No offense to Kingsford, Norway, Breitung Township, and other Michiganders around Iron Mountain, but I'm going to set up shop in Niagara or Marquette.  When I approached them, they jumped.  And gave me assurances, to boot.  The weather will forbid it of course, but I could have been building already within 30 days of first contacting them.  (I first contacted Iron Mountain a year ago next month, originally hoping to break ground last spring.)  Escanaba was very receptive and cooperative, too, but is a bit far from home.  Iron Mountain, which at first appeared to be a natural selection -- and no doubt could be if properly organized and managed -- is the pits.  Sorry.  Hope you can get some decent people in charge and turn things around.  You deserve it.  It does not matter what the current city council members and candidates are telling you, Iron Mountain.  Follow the facts instead of their political baloney.  Frankly, your current government must be all hot air, ignorance, and photo ops because as far as actually governing, it does not appear to know which end is up.  It's no wonder entrepreneurs and new businesses are bypassing Iron Mountain.  Your current city government is in effect forcing them to, repelling business rather than attracting it, and as a result Iron Mountain's economy is stagnating, preventing real and significant growth in big-money private investment and contemporary jobs, the types of investment and jobs you want nowadays.  And must secure when you can!

Still, I extend my continued best wishes to you, Iron Mountain, and hope you can right your ship soon.  You are a great town apparently just going through a rough patch.  See you again soon.

Tom Feiereisen
Milwaukee

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10-30-2007-01

Wouldn't you support and campaign for your friends, family and those who are doing things to help your business if they were running for office?  The notion that these businesses and people are being sneaky by campaigning for people that they are either related to or support the same issues as they do is just silly.

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10-29-2007-08

Expediting Safe, Smart, and Profitable Business Ventures and Development in Iron Mountain.  By Bill Toedter.

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10-29-2007-07

The Decline and Fall of the U.S.A.
 
Our democracy is broken, from Washington thru Lansing to Iron Mountain.  How does a great nation decline and fall?  You let it.
 
That's what the citizens of the U.S. are doing.  We're apathetic.  We're complacent.  We're lazy.  We're not participating.  Our leaders are pathetic.  We either do nothing to choose them or choose them carelessly, without any thought.  Then we let them get away with murder.
 
We're no different in Iron Mountain.  I am personally involved in two recent mini-catastrophes in our immediate area that never should have happened and are symptomatic of how we're just allowing things to fall apart.  Many if not most of you will probably recognize me as I write, but so be it.
 
The first is the IME offer to Iron Mountain in 2005.  (#10-25-2007-03 this page).  I worked for one of only two local businesses (other than IME) privileged to be in that consortium.  I did not know that such idiotic and maladroit behavior was possible by a city government in our day and age.  Live and learn, huh?  There is no way in the world that the word leader applies to any member of this city's government at least since September 2005 and how they fumbled the ball thru incompetence and blindness and laziness and complacency.
 
A couple points about that whole episode since Mr. Hogan's letter to the editor came out.  People have been asking primarily a couple questions.
 
First.  We recommend that you get information from the city thru the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) instead of from us because it proves that the city in fact received and archived that information.  If they didn't deep-six it.  We could publish that information online of course, but there's no way you would know that we didn't just put that information on a website yesterday.  Other than the immutable time-and-date-stamped digital original (impossible to gather around a single computer and show to everyone), copies from the city or original recipients are the most practical and believable source of proof.
 
Second.  People ask why we did not go to a city council meeting when the city did not respond.  In fact, we did.  Two of them.  They were crowded too!  The major subject at one was the blight ordinance, at the other the rental ordinance.  But we attended each in the hope that an opportunity might arise.  One did not.  Three things constrained us.  1.) A presentation would be limited to 5 minutes.  2.) The council members and city manager would not respond, and most of what we had at that point were questions for them.  3.) TV6, the radio stations, and the newspaper were there, as was a large number of the public.  Would it have been responsible to tantalize the public of the U.P. for 5 minutes with the briefest of summaries of what might or might not happen?  Those city council meetings are no way to do business and everybody knows it, including the city manager and the city council, which is why they set their meeting format up that way.  They would not acknowledge us outside a meeting, and it is impossible to do business in a meeting.  They have that rigged exactly the way they want it.
 
If it's any consolation, Iron Mountain, our city is not the only jurisdiction in the neighborhood being "led" by a bunch of incompetent, corrupt, stupid, and/or irresponsible boneheads, special interests, and control freaks.  I sit on the board of a recently established charitable foundation that specializes in studying, assisting, and improving American public education.  For the first half of 2007, we attempted to set up a participating project and  endowment of $40 million for a school district in, let's say, the greater south-central U.P.  It was to be one of three districts in a 5-year comparative study in the Midwest.  $30 million principal in an endowment set up between 2009 and 2016 for this district, and a $10 million good-faith/goodwill grant to the school district's general fund right off the bat this past summer for instructional, operational, and infrastructural expenses.  The superintendent, in touch with our chairman, was going to check with whoever he checks with as well as his board's committees from February thru June and let us know by our June 15 deadline if at least they were interested and wanted to learn more and/or pursue setting things up.  In fact, our foundation chairman, a person you also know from Iron Mountain, went to the school board meeting just prior to June 15 with a fancy letter of presentation and a check for $10 million dollars.  Presumptuous, yes, but who doesn't accept $40 million dollars?  Well, this school district actually.  In fact, the subject of the endowment was never brought up.  Not at that meeting, by June 15, or in the 60-day grace period following.  The endowment and grant has since gone to a similar district down the road from our neck of the woods.  But tell me: what boneheads walk away from $40 million, or even the opportunity to sit down and discuss getting it?  Especially in this day and age, when money is tighter than it has ever been?  And what does it hurt to talk?  The foundation chair is a lot kinder than me about dealing with the aftermath of this.

Voters of the area, you better wise up and start electing responsible councils and boards who will hire competent managers, supervisors, and superintendents.  And you had better start holding them all accountable all the time.  You are letting things go down the tubes without even realizing it, and unless you wise up and stop it soon, it will be too late and your city, your state, and your country will have slipped away.  Simply because you let it.

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10-29-2007-06

Do they just not do their homework, or do they do this kind of thing on purpose and figure they'll get away with it?  It happens so often.  And it's damning in either case.
 
CLAIM:
 
In the past 4 years [2003-2007], Iron Mountain has received more than 4 million dollars in grants.  In the previous 4 years [1999-2003], it received virtually none.
 
Source: 2007 campaign flyer for Sally Jacobs, Doug Rigoni, Ken Tousignant, Jeff VanLaanen
 
FACT:
 
In the past four years [2003-2007], Iron Mountain has received 3.5 million dollars in grants.  In the previous 4 years [1999-2003], Iron Mountain received 4 million dollars in grants.
 
Source: City of Iron Mountain Vendor Reports, 1999-2007

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10-29-2007-05

¡Ay, caramba!  It's true!  They're real!  They live!

I discovered something really interesting this weekend.  Do you know that there are more than a handful of wildly angry supporters for the incumbents out there who at this very moment believe that the challengers for city council are trying to discredit the incumbents by having created a fictional person and business to use as a tool against the incumbents and their city manager?  Here we go again!  Shades of Dougie and his blog.

I'm referring to what on this website is submission 10-25-2007-03.  Jim Hogan and IME Corporation are quite real.  They exist.  You irate "Fake!" screamers should check with your pals before getting all hot and bothered.  Half of them probably know Hogan or know of him, and half of that number have probably been involved on one project or another with him since the '70s.  You know, not everyone in Iron Mountain lives or cares to live in front of a TV camera, radio microphone, or newspaper photographer.  Hogan is a guy who, if or when he comes to the party, shows up with a folder of proof under this arm.  I suspect what some people are really worried about is that in his online and Daily News article he is directing them to yet another smoking gun, one that will further incriminate Iron Mountain's current council and management.  I refer to him directing the curious, caring, and skeptical to request from the city itself, via the Freedom of Information Act, his supporting business correspondence and service lists of December 6, 2005; December 16, 2005; January 10, 2006; and any other relevant correspondence citizens choose to get from the city about this episode.  I'm sure this is why the incumbents' website has never published the remarks Hogan submitted to it, although the Public Forum and Daily News have.  He can always direct people to evidence to support him.  The previous issue, for example, was when the mayor's domestic partner on the incumbents' website gratuitously attacked, misrepresented, and smeared Hogan, and Hogan responded to the two websites and the newspaper in defense of the Schools Public Liaison Officer Program but against the illegal use of the cable-TV fee -- Item 9-17-2007-01 in the Public Forum and at this Daily News link.  The incumbents' website chose not to publish a copy.  It appears they got their lick in and weren't interested in hearing or providing the whole story.  Incidentally, why didn't they protest his existence then?

Jim Hogan and IME have lived in Iron Mountain for over 28 years.  An educator, tech writer, and translator for years, professionally he has focused on providing online services since the late '80s.  His wife is an accomplished musician, decades long performer, and public-schools teacher in the community.  For decades he was prominently involved in the community's fine-arts scene, especially the performing arts, to a large extent in theatre and mostly in music.  He was the founder and, for years, the director of the Peninsula Singers.  Since the early '80s he has created, produced, directed, participated in, underwritten, and presented countless local shows and concerts.  In conjunction with IME, throughout the '90s he sent first-class charters with top-drawer tickets from our community -- all free or at break-even costs -- to Green Bay, Milwaukee, Chicago, New York, and points beyond so local students, performers, and appreciators had opportunities to attend world-class professional resident and touring operas, musicals, ballets, modern dance performances, festivals, and big-name concerts of all types.  An activist, if a low-profile and silent one, he continues to openly support the arts as well as charities and social and health causes, in town and out.  He simply doesn't splash it all over the media and in extra-large bold print in program notes and every local playbill.  He doesn't need attention and public praise for attention and public praise's sake.  But he surely exists.  Visibility just isn't a principal concern of his.  I believe that the only ones he cares know about his vocational and avvocational activities are the ones that have to get it done and, sappy as it sounds, God.  The fellow has a deep and abiding faith.  But unless you try to exploit him and others for cheap political or personal gain, whether or not you know that he exists is of no importance to him.

Ecce homo! Behold the man!  He exists.

IME Corporation exists too, by the way.  I don't know why people don't do their homework.  Search IME Corporation at Google, Yahoo! Search, MSN -- the main search engines.  Its shortcut directory division's global homepage (Here!) always turns up as one of the top couple returns.  From that page most of IME's myriad sites and services unfold, including links to The Human Relief Fund (which you can also Google independently), Helping Others (its current clearinghouses), and even the handy and utilitarian Iron Mountain area shortcut directory at IMEplace, one of the local civic directories, donated for the Dickinson County area's use, including free listings for all of the area's commercial and noncommercial enterprises and entities -- this, via the name IMEplace.com, is how IME is known at the local Chamber.  Through IME's hosting and email companies, it also has a considerable number of private and nonprofit local clients.  Some of whom you skeptics can easily Google-search yourself for verification of existence.  A varied sampling: First Presbyterian Church of Iron Mountain Kingsford, Dickinson County Community Chorus, The Caring House, Dickinson County Community Theater, Spreen Aviation, Kingsford Music, NMDA Kingsford, Watercolors by Suzanne Fraker, Iron Mountain Kingsford Soup Kitchen, et al., dozens, most of which are provided either free, at cost, or inexpensively, depending on their purpose.  It has thousands -- tens of thousands! -- of domains and URLs (web addresses), depending on geographic location and the service(s) involved, but its most common ones worldwide are http://www.imeplace.com , http://www.imeplace.org , http://www.imeplace.net , http://www.shortcutdirectory.com , http://www.shortcutdirectory.org , and http://www.shortcutdirectory.net .

So.  This man and this company exist.  Imagine that.  You can find them yourself independently and easily.  If you bother.  Something is seriously out of kilter when this city-hall in-crowd, jumpy as a cat, starts strongly, wrongly, and at the drop of a hat making accusations against the challengers for an identity issue that a wing of this incumbent bunch created out of raging ignorance and thin air.  What's going on here anyhow?  Why are these incumbents and their clique of supporters behaving so stridently, so desperately, and so personally?  Even irrationally, as someone else mentioned.  Do they have something to lose?  Do they have something to hide?  They strike out so startlingly, as if they're scared to death of something.  What the heck is at stake here for them that the challengers and the rest of us don't know about?

Jerrold Roedesch

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10-29-2007-04

Sigh.  I'm mortified that I voted for five of the seven current Iron Mountain City Council members.  For four years for four of them and two years for one, I've sat back and sourly observed the behavior of this council, the manager it hired, and its staff.  I've watched the city generally come undone as a result of their governance, deteriorating as the government tried to use the city itself for its officials' personal benefit, and as it tried to counter reality by creating a P.R. and publicity machine that could at least claim all was going well and throw up the facades of a Potemkin's village.

Continue progress?  What progress?  We've entered an accelerating spiral, folks, and the direction is backwards and down.

Week after week, month after month, I've watched elected and hired city officials and their dwindling but adamant supporters deny the undeniable time and time again.  Then a couple of minutes ago it dawned on me: Iron Mountain's City Council and management would rather be wrong their way than right anybody else's way.  

It's inescapable.  Iron Mountain's City Council and management would rather be wrong their way than right anybody else's way.

That's no good, folks.  That's when it's time for a major change.  We have to do better than this.  We should at least give four of the five new candidates a shot.  I can't imagine how they can do any worse.  And, with God's grace and great good luck, maybe they'll put a new and effective management team in place too.

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10-29-2007-03

Single-Issue, My Foot!

Why are Virginia Feleppa and other militant incumbent supporters rushing around town, collaring folks, and shrilly claiming that the challengers are one-issue candidates?  That claim is absolute nonsense.  Are these people just swallowing the pap the incumbents give them without any investigation and critical thought?

Issue Number  1:  Assessment Issue

Issue Number  2:  Cable-TV Fees

Issue Number  3:  Economic Development

Issue Number  4:  Fire & Police Protection

Issue Number  5:  Health Costs

Issue Number  6:  Legal Issues

Issue Number  7:  Rental Ordinance

Issue Number  8:  Sewer Rates

Issue Number  9:  Streets & Alleys

Issue Number 10:  Water Rates

These are the issues on which the challengers are largely in agreement.  Want positions on more issues from the candidates individually?  Here are their weblogs.

Toedter  |  Rosen   |  Peterson  |  Farragh  |  Alessandrini

Single-issue candidates, my foot!  How would the incumbents feel if they were accused of being single-issue candidates -- say, for example, focusing only on the issue of self?

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10-29-2007-02

Plain and Simple

Overwhelmingly, the vast majority of landlords in Iron Mountain are in favor of either the IPMC (International Property Maintenance Code) or a fair version of a rental ordinance.  They are also for being registered with the city.  Yes, you read those sentences correctly.  The IPMC is clear, concise, adopted nationally, covers all entities for safety -- renters and homeowners -- and is known to be successful.

The city-council incumbents would have you think otherwise for political reasons.  It's an old political trick.  If the incumbents choose an economic, social, or cultural group and demonize its members among the general public, they think they'll look good by comparison.  In this case, they demonize the landlords (and firemen, and other select groups) and feel they look good by comparison to them -- and that you'll vote for them and they'll retain their power!  These are just sensationalist tricks to distract the voter from what the incumbents are doing behind the scenes, about which they don't want the public to know, or the stuff they're not doing for the city at all -- but should be!  It's a political trick as old as Creation, and the landlords just happen to be one of the politicians' victims this time.

What the incumbent candidates don't tell you is that Iron Mountain already has the IPMC on the books, nor do they tell you why they're not enforcing it properly -- behavior that would protect everyone in town, not only renters.  Instead of enforcing the code, they choose a scapegoat on which they can blame everything that's going wrong and not being accomplished on their watch.

Let's just elect somebody who's gonna enforce the Code and do the other accomplishing and forgo all this unnecessary political baloney of recent years, please.  Thank you.

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10-29-2007-01

Growing, Developing, and Improving the Entire City.  Realistically and Fairly.  By Tina Peterson.

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10-28-2007-14

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10-28-2007-13

Post 10-28-2007-04 says James Hogan's letter is calculating because it was posted recently in the midst of the campaign.
 
If I had made the same offer he did to the city and got the run around he did, you can be damned sure I would have written about it at a time when it would best emphasize the kinds of people and city manager we have and hopefully have the most impact.
 
You have a problem with that?  If so, what is it.

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10-28-2007-12

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10-28-2007-11

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10-28-2007-10

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10-28-2007-09

In response to 10-28-2007-04:

James M. Hogan's letter-to-the-editor post at 10-25-2007-03 does not seem calculating.  It is calculating.  I'd bet on it, and I'd bet that, if asked, Jim Hogan would be the first to say so, too.  Use your head.  The election is next week.  The man is clearly explaining why next week he is voting for different candidates than he voted for in 2003.  And understandably so!  Don't turn a clear, simple explanation into a dark, complicated conspiracy.  And before you submit something publicly, have the courtesy and respect to re-read what you write, edit it, and spell at least a person's name correctly.

Emma Lynn and Bill Madison

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10-28-2007-08

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10-28-2007-06

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10-28-2007-05

All in the Family

If you're paying attention, you'll notice something interesting about all the council members and business owners and businesses who have these little ads in the paper lately for VanLaanen, Rigoni, Jacobs and Tousignant (write in).

They're all in bed together.  Literally or figuratively.  They're all related either by blood or by business.  Some by both.  One way or another, it's all one big happy family.

Stephens Realty runs an incumbent-supportive ad and is the agency representing city real estate.  Maddy Tousignant owns Stephens.  Surprise!  That's Mayor Ken Tousignant's mom.  The mayor himself is the office manager for Stephens.

Dr. and Kris Leonard run one of those ads also.  Well!  Kris Leonard works for Stephens.  She's a realtor there.

Liz Douglas runs an ad, but it turns out she stands to gain from the incumbents by getting a new parking lot and alley behind her beauty shop.

Carey Contracting runs an ad and promotes the incumbent ad program itself, but Mike and his wife Colleen, with her Servicemaster business, stand to profit handsomely if they land building and cleaning contracts for the Blomquist stripmall, the Champion Building renovation, and other incumbent-pushed projects throughout town.  That's some pretty snazzy elbow-rubbing.

Bacco of course is obvious by now, or should be.  Councilman Rigoni runs Bacco.  Plenty of city money going into those coffers.

Moose-Jackson runs one of those ads.  Councilwoman Eden Caudell owns Moose-Jackson.  So much for any objectivity there.

Dave Brule is the only TIFA board member who voted to fund the new parking lot and alley behind city hall and beauty shop and Moose-Jackson.  Of course, his business in the industrial park got a free new parking lot from the incumbents last year.  Tit for tat, I guess.

Dee Benjamin, a sister of Liz Douglas, runs one of those ads too.  Her husband is Gary Benjamin.  He's the head honcho of Gundlach-Champion, the company that got the fat city grant and physical infrastructure assistance from city hall last year.

Another sister of Liz Douglas and Dee Benjamin is Kathy Curran.  Who is married to John Curran of Morgan Stanley.  Through Morgan Stanley, John Curran invests Iron Mountain's police and fire personnel's pension money.  According to the city's vendors' reports, over $75,250 in 2006 and more than $61,000 so far in 2007.  They must make a nice piece of change from that.

Very cozy, all this.

Folks, government is in the business of governing, not being a commercial business partner.  It must concern itself with the welfare of all of the citizens in its jurisdiction, not just a privileged few who attempt to manipulate and milk the system for their own profit.

Ladies and gentlemen of Iron Mountain, I submit that local government should provide the opportunity for local businesses to survive and prosper.  Under thinly veiled efforts at disguise, it should not provide corporate welfare -- large sums of money itself -- directly to businesses who game the city's political system for their own benefit.

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10-28-2007-04

Considering the date and common council campaign , James M. Hoagns letter to the editor post at 10-25-2007-03 seems pretty calculatiing.

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10-28-2007-03

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10-28-2007-02

The very, very cheap shot by Ann Markell has had the exact opposite effect of her intentions.     
 
It brought to light the many activities and accomplishments Dale Alessandrini has performed for the benefit of the Iron Mountain community.  The excellent post by Bill Revord highlighted many of them.  See Post # 10-27-2007-14.
 
Dale did not seek praise or headlines.  He was approached by various groups ranging from the Iron Mountain School Board, Vision 2020, the Neighborhood Partnership, working with Bill Revord in his role as Community Chair of the Elks Club in welcoming the troops home, helping with Hog Wild and many other activities too numerous to mention.
 
The brand new boiler donated to the Iron Mountain School district was installed and never used in the Newburg Clinic when that building was temporarily saved in anticipation of selling it.  It is worth many thousands of dollars in cost savings to the school district.
 
OK, Ann Markell - why don't you post your contributions to the community and let's see how you stack up against Dale Alessandrini.
 
To the City Council and City Manager John Marquart: You have shamelessly tried to take credit for projects and accomplishments where you had very little or nothing to do with them.  So you got some kind of a grant for the northside ball field. But without the labor of many volunteers from that area who did backbreaking work along with the heroic efforts of the Michigan Laborer's Training Council which Mr. Alessandrini heads, it would never have succeeded. 
 
Yes, Mr. Marquart, we remember.  We remember when the volunteers asked the DPW for an hour or two use of the city grader and operator to spread the free topsoil WE Energies had donated and you showed up ranting and raving because the request had not gone to you directly.  You sure showed your maniacal control-freak colors that day.
 
And you, Mayor Tousignant, are always available for photo-ops, but I didn't see you out there busting your butt along with the volunteers.  Beneath your dignity, I guess.
 
In their flyer, the incumbents try to take credit for all the sidewalk work that has been done the past two summers when they had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do or say about it. It was entirely a TIFA project, with no input needed or wanted from the city council. It was part of TIFA's long range plan years before any of the incumbents or the city manager were around.
 
The thought of Marquart, Tousignant or ANY of the other smearing, devious, lying and rumor-mongering incumbents being around for the next for years is enough to make me want to heave.

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10-28-2007-01

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10-27-2007-17

Tina:
 
I do appreciate and thank you for you answers to my questions about the "Plan".  We could go back and fourth all day long.  Just like when you brought up the 9 police officers in the city of Houghton after I mentioned the 4 firefighters.  You did not take into account the police officers that work for Michigan Technological University, last I knew there were 5.  If you add them up that makes the number the same as the number of police officers in Iron Mountain. 
 
One question that you have not answered is where the "plan" came from?  The fact is that I believe (know) that it came directly from the current full time firefighters.  Now they want to hire part time firefighters.  This is quite the change from a couple of years ago when they were totally against this.  Is it possible that they have fed this "plan" to the challengers in attempt to preserve the remaining full time positions?
 
I ask again where did this "Plan" come from??
 
I have concerns with anyone who would SIGN THEIR NAMES to a "plan" that is so far from the norm of other cities the size of Iron Mountain.
 
I am done after this correspondence as I do not think that it is productive in this type forum.  Tina I do again thank you as you were the only one of the challengers that responded to my questions.  I have one vote left and it may go to you. :)

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10-27-2007-16

Please read post 10-27-2007-14

This post reflects the true Mr. Alessandrini and all the hard work he has given to this community.  Dale is a person of action to back up his words.  There are not many that can claim to be able to do this.

Thanks Dale.

Dean Lefebvre

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10-27-2007-15

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10-27-2007-14

Thank you Dale for all the years of help you have given me and others on important community projects. And thanks to your men and women from the training school as well.
 
Thank you for your time, expertise, advice and suggestions on issues that affect our neighborhoods. In large part it has been because of service such as yours that progress has been made.
 
Thank you for being a part of the efforts made in this community by our Elks Lodge. We value your company and the important contributions you have made to this organization and specifically your help to me as the Community Activities Chair. Your efforts have made a positive difference.
 
Thank you and your crew for all your organization and physical efforts on behalf of the folks on our Northside and all the kids that will use the ball field and playground . Without your commitment to this project it simply would not have gotten done without the expenditure of dollars the NPPDC nor Vision 20-20 just didn't have.
 
Thank you for hanging with me time and again to complete the sidewalk pours on our West and east sides.
 
Thank you for all of your efforts on behalf of our County Airport and the concrete walk around the plane.
 
Thank you for your help in our efforts in this community to welcome home our troops. We know we can depend upon you for help to get the big jobs done.
 
Thank you for your time and efforts getting our mega grill moved and ready for the yearly HOG WILD celebration cook off. Your efforts save many tired backs.
 
Thank you and your crew for your help to our schools and the sidewalks that have been built or replaced there. Your leadership at the Training school has made it possible for your School District to save valuable dollars for kids that would otherwise have to be spent on labor. As a single member of the Board of Education, I greatly appreciate this. Between You and Bacco Construction and our departed friend Ernie Zambon many good things have come to this District over the years.   
 
Thank you and your family for your generous donation of a Brand New Boiler to our School District. as a member of the Building and Grounds Committee of this District I can't tell you how much I appreciate this.
 
And thank you and and your family for being good friends to so many in this community, especially Pam and I and our children.  We Value your friendship, your leadership, and your honesty.
 
There may have been a day in years gone by when you may not have had the wealth of dollars in your pocket. I too have been there. But in my family's opinion you have something much more valuable, you have the love of your family and respect of many in your community and in my book that makes your one of the wealthiest men I know.
 
Thanks Dale for all of your contributions over the years. All done from the heart, all done quietly and without fanfare.
 
Sincerely,
 
Bill and Pam Revord and family
Iron Mountain

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10-27-2007-13

 

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10-27-2007-12

Mr. Hogan, with regrets, great punchline to your posting 10-25-2007-03.  The City Manager was paying closer attention than you gave him credit for.  I saw your formal correspondence from Day One.  Immediately after the City ignored your 2005-06 tech donations, proposals, and requests for a meeting, John Marquart went to the TIFA Board and palmed off your idea for the Wi-Fi (wireless) umbrella/hotspot over Iron Mountain as his, asked TIFA for the money to pay for it, and asked Dean Carollo and Computer Connections if they'd do the tech work and give the city a kickback -- I mean a fee -- on the amount that Computer Connections got for the business.  TIFA and Carollo would have nothing to do with it for legal, practical, and financial reasons, but you hafta give that scoundrel Marquart an A+ for sheer nerve, hey?  Swipes your idea, takes credit for it, and tries to turn it into a buck and make himself look like Mr. John Terrific Indispensable.  The guy is one primo _______ (fill in the blank).

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10-27-2007-11

I would like to know if anybody out there has different information and/or more information regarding the IMHS government students and the Iron Mountain city government between Friday October 12th and Monday October 15th. This is an issue about which I am very concerned and curious and which bothers me more as I talk to some of the players and as others of the players refuse to talk about it.

As I understand it at the moment, it was the school's teacher and administration as early as Friday October 12th, not the City Council, that cancelled the students' participation in the City Council's October 15th meeting. This was due to inquiries and/or complaints by northside residents, including parents, to the school that students were handing out political campaign literature for the Mayor and the City Council's 2007 incumbent candidates. They had been either requested or instructed to do this as part of their government-class assignment that day by, allegedly, northside ward Councilwoman Eden Caudell, City Manager John Marquart, and perhaps other city employees. And that, because of the illegality, which the kids were unaware of, the State Police are either being urged to investigate or are already investigating.

Contributors to this Web site obviously have a history of providing a lot of written official proof about the city's political and
governmental affairs. Can anybody out there authoritatively support or debunk this information about Friday October 12th or firm up what's true about it and what is not? Or point us toward whoever does know?

An Extremely Concerned Mother Looking for Facts

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10-27-2007-10

In early 2006 I had read a couple "underground" offer sheets and letters from the previous months from Mr. Hogan to the full range of city officials, asking for some kind of reply one way or another to his approaches. Yesterday I was reading Mr. Hogan's letter to the editor and that "irrationality" aspect of the absolutely and continuously silent city government jumped out at me. That seems a recurrent theme. The senselessness and almost spooky madness like the-aunt-in-the-attic insanity you sense sometimes from this council and its bureaucrats. I had a communication problem for months with those city people trying to talk to someone about a serious and expensive issue in our neighborhood. I know at least half a dozen who will tell you the same thing. No one would talk to me. It was nutty. And when they finally do, like the city manager, he says well he'll have to investigate, then you never hear from him again. And if you do finally talk with him again, he says the same thing and then never gets back to you! And big stuff too like when TIFA offers them a million and a half dollars for the water project, a project TIFA can actually legally contribute to, and the city people refuse!!! Huh? And then the city people turn around over and over and over again like a bunch of chewy gumheads and request money for stuff TIFA isn't permitted to contribute to!!! Huh? These people are in charge? What's the matter with these people? Irrational is as good a word as any. Dumb, crazy -- those words work too. And that doesn't even approach the related etiquette side of their behavior. You would think a company or consortium group contacts you with inquiries and info like Mr. Hogan describes about things those city guys and gals downtown are always clamoring for in the paper and on their radio programs, the city manager or mayor or clerk or an appropriate council committee chairperson or SOMEBODY down there would at least have it in him to jot out an email reply or take a single minute and pick up a phone and say "Drop dead, we're not interested." You know? It's not like there aren't four hundred thousand million phones and Internet connected computers in city hall. The correspondence I saw had phone numbers and addresses of all kinds to contact Mr. Hogan and his group. I mean, someone asks you a question, you answer it. That's what I want my city government to do. That's behavior that's rational and right. Ya gotta wonder what the heck other weird stuff is going on. Maybe next month we can start a thorough housecleaning down there and start getting things sane again.

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10-27-2007-09

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10-27-2007-08

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10-27-2007-07

Expertise is a wonderful thing.  Publicly witnessing an example of professional expertise is even more wonderful.  Read about  Our Water  by Dave Farragh.

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10-27-2007-05

Openness and responsive government mean public access -- and that means YOU.

Some of us have noticed that Iron Mountain's incumbent city-council candidates, their supporters, and city employees whose jobs depend on the reelection of these candidates are distancing themselves from the electorate and from the candidates challenging the incumbents.  They do this mainly by hiding behind their official access to the traditional media -- particularly the mayor and the city manager.  Although the city-council meeting cancelled so conveniently and coincidentally because of a lack of a quorum was also pretty fishy.  Engineering such one-sided formats, they can be once removed from the public and the challengers, not having to answer the public's questions or defend their mean, arrogant, and generally unconscionable personal attacks on the challengers.  They buffer themselves from anyone who might question them or protest so they can tell the broader public whatever they want, unchallenged, and not have to deal on the spot with any inconvenient truths.

Too bad they haven't spent as much time, effort, and money addressing the issues and trying to make the city run economically and effectively.

This combination of this growing distance from the public and the incumbents' inordinate unopenness to all of us is exactly one of the things the challengers are running against.  During this campaign, the challengers can't just phone the Daily News, TV6, or WJNR to publicly spout, without charge, whatever they want, whenever they want, and then return to their offices, homes, or clubs to hide out from any questions or rebuttals.  Therefore, if you'd care to ask the challengers questions or hear their side of things, including the defense of themselves and setting the record straight against unwarranted attacks of false information, or if you know anyone who does, please visit their individual websites, email them, or phone them.  They'll be happy to answer your questions, acknowledge your input, and discuss the issues of this campaign.

Dale Alessandrini  ...  Email  ...  906-774-6821

Dave Farragh  ...  Email  ...  906-774-8575

Tina Peterson  ...  Email  ...  906-776-1150

Bruce Rosen  ...  Email  ...  906-779-9089

Bill Toedter  ...  Email  ...  906-779-1347

Please vote for four of these five candidates on November 6.  Your vote matters.  It's as important as you are and can make the difference.  Don't be bullied, intimidated, scorned, and excluded.  Please: vote!  And encourage your friends and family members to do likewise.  Thank you.

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10-27-2007-04

FLUSHING THE HYDRANTS -
 
I understand a full flushing of the fire hydrants is supposed to start Monday.  This is just another instance where "the story broke" on this website after Dave Farragh presented it at a council meeting.
 
DPW employees had repeatedly mentioned it to DPW Director Becotte who had passed the word to City Manager Marquart.  Nothing happened for over two years.  Only when the story began circulating on this site and in The Daily News does the pressure build to DO SOMETHING.
 
FIRE TRUCK BLINKER - The faulty blinker light was on the third, unused, fire truck.  The fire department had been ordered by John Marquart not to spend a penny of that truck. The MIOSHA inspector caught it, issued a citation, and it was then fixed.  No fine was levied, citation was corrected and withdrawn.  
 
To gain political points, the incumbents, especially Rigoni, Tousignant and City Manager Marquart tried to spin this way out of proportion to avoid discussing the $23,000 in fines paid to MIOSHA for the far more serious issue of inadequate fire protection that  Marquart's screwed plan had failed to deliver.
 
Anyone looking just below the surface of Iron Mountain operations can see, here and now, the total incompetence of this council and manager in one issue after another.
 
It's unbelievable - totally unbelievable.

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10-27-2007-03

A heartfelt word from Tina Peterson

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10-27-2007-02

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10-27-2007-01

The sleaziest letter ever appeared in the Voice of the People column yesterday, asking for credit reports of all candidates.  Shame on you, Ann Markell.  You are now officially a part of the sleaze campaign.
 
Why didn't you mention the $100,000+ commission the Mayor's mother stood to gain in Ken Tousignant and Doug Rigoni's failed attempt to get the TIFA Board to buy the Khoury property at an outrageous price?  (See previous day letter by Ted Corombos, who has too much integrity to mention who had the listing and stoop to your level)
 
Credit ratings?  What would the credit ratings of the incumbents be is they had to stand on their own.